Improvement in photography



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

O. A. GUILMETTE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND GEORGE P. TOWLE, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN PHOTOGRAPHY.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 53,608, dated April 3, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, (1A. GUILMETTE, of Boston, in the county of Sufl'olk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and use t'ul Autophotograph and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of my invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

The object of this invention is to obtain photographic portraits or likenesses of persons having facsimiles of their autographs forming part of such photographs.

Where photographic likenesses are duplicated to great extent it is of course impossible to obtain the signature of the person upon each picture; but if the autograph can be made to form part of the sitter at the time the photograph is taken, and'bc thus brought into the negative picture or plate, the picture, with the autograph, may of course be copied ad infim'tmn, each photograph having the fac-simile autograph appearing thereon.

This result I have produced in such manner that the autograph appears in the picture Without any border or fixed lines; and the invention consists in the process by which the autograph is made to appear in the photograph unsurrounded by regular lines.

Heretot'ore, where the name of a person has been produced as a part of a photographic picture, such name has been placed upon a card or frame of some kind, and is made to appear in the picture surrounded by the outline of such card or frame 5 but my object is to make the name appear in the picture as if written directly upon the photograph, the edges of the card or plate upon which the name is written not being seen.

To obtain such pictures, the proceeding is as follows: The writing is made upon a flat surface, such as a piece of board or card, the letters being written with chalk, crayon, or other suitable 1naterialin white, if the surface be black, or in black, ifthe surface be white, or in some other color which shall contrast with the color of the surface written upon. In placing the sitter in position, the card or board having the autograph written upon it is arranged about the person, the edges being concealed by drapery or otherwise, the writing being in the focus of the camera. The picture is then taken negatively of the person and writing together, from which the positive photographs or copies are made in the usual way.

The size of the letters of the autograph should be such as to cause them to appear in the photograph like the ordinary writing of the person.

1 do not claim any frame or mechanical contrivance for holding the name.

I claim- Making a negative from which to print a photographic likeness of a person with a facsimile of an autographic signature forming part of such photograph, by means of a card or tablet having the signature written upon it, and placed upon some part of the person, and so that the autograph shall be taken with the person in the negative picture, and without showing the outline of the card or tablet, as hereinabove specified.

CHARLES A. GUILMETTE.

Witnesses:

F. GOULD, J. B. OEosBY. 

